Glasgow Warriors have no plans to copy Edinburgh's piped music sessions as George Horne hopes grow

Hostile atmosphere expected at Bayonne – but Carolan wants to silence crowd in other ways

Nigel Carolan says Glasgow Warriors will aim to silence the French crowd rather than trying to emulate them when they travel to face Bayonne in the Champions Cup on Friday night.

Rivals Edinburgh warmed up for their Challenge Cup match away to Clermont Auvergne last week by piping in crowd noises during training sessions at their Hive stadium. It didn’t have the desired effect, with Sean Everitt’s side going down 31-18 inside the Stade Marcel-Michelin. Glasgow have no plans to try anything similar as they prepare to head to Basque country to take on a Bayonne side who mustered a creditable 17-17 draw with Munster the day after Warriors had been beaten at home by Northampton Saints. The Stade Jean-Dauger only has a capacity of around 14,000 but Carolan expects they will create a sufficient din that will only be silenced by Warriors putting points on the board.

Glasgow’s attack coach said: “They’ve got a fantastic stadium and a really vocal local crowd. It’s a real hotbed of rugby down in that corner. Maybe they’ve not been going brilliantly in the Top 14 but they’ve got really good support. They beat Montpellier last week in front of a full house so it will be a real cauldron for us. So for us it’s about trying to get as comfortable as possible with being uncomfortable. It’s going to be a real pressurised environment. Munster didn’t take their chances but if we can take ours then we can silence the crowd. It’s important that, rather than us trying to build noises here, if we bring our A game we can silence the Bayonne supporters and that will hopefully play into our hands.”

Nigel Carolan knows Glasgow Warriors are in for a noisy reception against Bayonne.

Carolan is "optimistic" that scrum-half George Horne, who has missed the last three matches, will be available for selection. He added: “George is very close to returning again. We’re optimistic on his availability. He’s feeling good and really positive about it but we just need to see how he trains this week. George is an in form, international No 9 so any time he’s available we’re going to jump on that one.”